Creamy Mints

Due to everyone being so busy with the holidays, it was decided that the Secret Recipe Club would take December off.  Each month I love participating, posting and seeing what everyone else makes, so I really missed it but with our trip to Savanna for Maisie’s state meet, then two weeks in Aruba, immediately followed by Christmas and then New Years…well it was a good thing.  Now though it’s great to be back again and I’m excited to post and see what everyone else made this month.  We received our January assignment very early, right before Thanksgiving in fact, and I couldn’t wait to check out my assigned blog, Kate’s Kitchen Trial & Errors,  

I loved browsing through Kate’s blog and non-food related, seeing some pictures of her cutle-patootie baby Winn.  On the food-side, so many of Kate’s recipes called to me and I love that her husband, like me, adores all things lemon so she has a lot of lemony recipes on her blog, all of which I wanted to make.  I mean, check out her lemon shortbread cookies or even more enticing, lemon curd shortbread sandwich cookies…YUM!  Of course with the cold weather her Creamy tomato soup, apple chicken chili, holiday shortbread cookies, and Indian butter chicken all sounded wonderful too.  Then, as my Mom was here when I got my assignment, I almost made Chai biscotti for her as she adores both biscotti and chai so putting them together would’ve make her happy,  Then I thought, Creamy white hot chocolate for my white chocolate loving husband, or how about her creamy corn with cilantro… but I was afraid that I’d eat the entire bowl myself like I can do when I make my, very similar, Creamed Corn with Cheese & Cilantro.  You can see why it was such a tough decision for this month.  In the end I opted for her creamy mints recipe, because they’re a perfect little treat and I made them just in time for the holidays…not that they lasted that long because we couldn’t stop eating them…each-and-every-time we walked by them we had to grab one or two.  I will be making these again and again…and I’m thinking lemon next time!

Just a drop of gel food coloring added at the end gave me a nice variegated minty look.

Kate rolled her mints in superfine sugar but I chose to omit that step and I think that they still look delicious.

Creamy Mints (adapted from here) 

• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• food coloring (optional) -  i used green gel and added it at the end so that it didn’t mix in fully allowing the streaky color variations
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar 

Using a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until soft and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the mint and food coloring, if using, and mix until blended. Add the confectioners sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until it forms a stiff mixture.  Using about 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture. roll into balls and then using the tines of a fork press a pattern into each mint.  Allow the mints to dry for a few hours and then store in the refrigerator.

Makes 6 dozen mints.

Enjoy!

My previous Secret Recipe Club Recipe Posts:

Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken 
Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings 
Fried Green Tomatoes 
Chicken Satay Noodle Salad 
Double Chocolate Mousse Cake 
Candied Popcorn
Fruit, Nut & Poppy Seed Chicken Salad 
Broiled Sushi 
Health(ier) Peanut Brittle 
Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites 
Texas Chicken with Lime Butter 
Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens 
Thin Mint Irish Coffee 
Levain Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies 
Welsh Cakes 
Nutella Crêpes 
Cilantro Lime Chicken 
Holy Guacamole 
and
Home Style Chicken Curry